[drbuzzard]

Entitlements do have to be cut. The total liabilities of Social Security and Medicare are a hell of a lot larger than $2.5T. That’s just a drop in the bucket. Yes, if that money was still somewhere (though I’m not exactly sure how the government would have saved it) other than bonds (Social Security does have tons of T-bills, as meaningless as that is) it might put off the crash for a little while longer, but the programs are on an unsustainable course. They are Ponzi schemes pure and simple and those cannot have a future.

[PieterCasparzen]

	OASI	DI	OASDI
Assets at the end of 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	$2,429.0	$179.9	$2,609.0
Total income in 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	698.8	106.3	805.1
Net payroll tax contributions . . . . . . . . . . . .	482.4	81.9	564.2
Reimbursements from General Fund of the Treasury .	87.8	14.9	102.7
Taxation of benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	22.2	1.6	23.8
Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	106.5	7.9	114.4
Total expenditures in 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	603.8	132.3	736.1
Benefit payments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	596.2	128.9	725.1
Railroad Retirement financial interchange . . . . . .	4.1	.5	4.6
Administrative expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	3.5	2.9	6.4
Net increase in assets in 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . .	95.0	-26.1	69.0
Assets at the end of 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	2,524.1	153.9	2,677.9

Note:

The 102.7 reimbursements are for the revenue not collected because of the corrupt bread and circuses "tax holiday", so that should be added into the calculation as it equates to expected revenue from payroll deductions.

Politicians like to make it sound like the 114.4 interest earnings are a #$##$%^^ GIFT. When, as a 10-year-old would understand, that is interest on the treasury bonds - and that is EARNED and DUE.

Congress is pissed that the plan is now USING the interest to pay benefits; there is no longer any SURPLUS for Congress to SPEND.

From the Trustees report:

The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program makes monthly income available to insured workers and their families at retirement, death, or disability.

...

The Social Security Act established the Board of Trustees to oversee the financial operations of the OASI and DI Trust Funds.

...

The Social Security Act requires that the Board, among other duties, report annually to the Congress on the actuarial status and financial operations of the OASI and DI Trust Funds. The 2012 report is the 72nd such report.

...

See ? It's supposed to be (well, if you're all concerned about details like the Rule of Law) a separate Fund. It's just at a point where Congress can't steal from it any more, and they have to actually pay the interest on the $2.677 trillion they Borrowed.